Flying or Falling
by Sunpies
Summary: Imagine life as a wheel. It spins and you'll either fall or learn to fly.
1. Admirable Tradition

_#34: Hair  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

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There isn't a girl in all of Konoha who doesn't envy the Hyuuga hair. It's thick, shiny, and -as those few who haved touched it know- it's amazingly soft.

But Neji doesn't care about all of that.

If someone asked Neji why he took such good care of his long hair... actually, he wouldn't answer that question. The reason he does though, is because his father kept it long. As did his father's father and a long line of ancestors before that. He decided long ago that long hair was as much a part of being a Hyuuga as the Byakugen eyes and unflagging pride.

So he goes about his life trying his best to ignore the admiring stares.

---

If Hanabi was asked why she kept her hair long, she probably wouldn't answer. After all, if she wants to keep her hair long, that's her own damn business.

The reality of it is, and most of the Hyuuga know this, Hanabi keeps her hair long to be like Neji.

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_#34: Hair  
__-Sunpies-_


	2. A Hard Return to White

_A Hard Return to White  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

He doesn't love her and doubts he ever will.

On March 3rd Uchiha Sasuke married the Hyuuga Hanabi. Spring was early and the grounds outside the temple were unseasonably green. His bride was painted white to symbolize the virtue she never had and Sasuke didn't see the difference. When they took their vows in dull murmurs, the Hyuuga lined the path on one side facing an empty garden.

Sasuke looked into her eyes before he took the first drink of sake and saw the end of a bloodline.

-

Hanabi didn't cook. She was the daughter of the head of the clan. She sparred, she killed, she played but she didn't cook.

Sasuke didn't cook because it wasn't important. A burnt bowl of rice was food the same as tora-fugu to him.

The first year of their marriage –with no servants to cook and neither being adept or willing to take up the task- was a hungry, bad-tasting one.

-

He watched her train every so often. As a Hyuuga, even when she was swollen and pregnant, she was graceful. The curves of her fighting form were beautiful even when nothing else about her was.

Sasuke never sparred with his wife but he waited at the hospital when he was told she had gone into labor while training.

-

Their first child was born with the Byukagen but went blind at age two. The embarrassed and shocked doctors told them that perhaps the clans were more closely related than anyone had thought. Sasuke vowed never to have another child.

When Hanabi told him she was pregnant again it was the first and last time he ever hit her. He couldn't feel his arm for days afterwards with the chakra holes all blocked and for all he remembered it being there, the tenuous trust that had stood between them was nowhere to be found.

-

Hyuuga Hinata was declared incompetent at the age of twenty-six. She was removed from service to her clan and to her village, restricted only to healing in the hospitals. Hanabi became clan head just a month later.

For all they were sisters, Hanabi didn't seem to care about her sister's fate and donned the family robes like she was born with them on.

Sasuke found himself thinking she was cold, just like her father. He wondered if he was like his father too.

-

They did not argue. Ever. Even when they were besieged by politics (which they both hated), missions (which they both loved), or children (which confused them both), they never argued.

In order to argue they would have had to have spoken to one another. They never did that either.

-

Even though it had been generations since the last successful assassination, Hyuuga Hanabi was killed by a mist ninja in her sleep.

The funeral was small and many of the Hyuuga were absent arguing over whether it was a good idea to replace Hanabi with Neji before the bloodstained tatami mats could be replaced.

After the cremation Sasuke and his sons dug through Hanabi's bones to place them in the urn. When they had finished, the remaining ash was spread in the forest and the urn was taken to the Hyuuga family grounds.

-

With his children grown and the house empty, a familiar feeling lurks in the periphery of his mind. It takes him two years to put a name to the feeling; he is lonely, he just can't discern why.

_A Hard Return to White  
__-Sunpies-_

_Dedicated to Goosegurl_


	3. The Sun and The Moon

_The Sun and The Moon  
__-Sunpies-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto et al._

"You know, I should hassle the person who's gonna marry Sasuke but mostly I just feel like I should be asking you why you're going through with it." Naruto discarded and drew another card from the deck sitting between them. The jounin lounge was unusually quiet that evening. It was just the two of them sitting around the beaten and worn old table playing cards so he felt comfortable talking about the upcoming wedding. Not that a lot of other people being there would have stopped him, but he might have hesitated ever so slightly.

Hinata blushed. He wasn't from a big clan - he didn't understand. She worried her lower lip between her teeth. Oh how she wished she was Naruto; if she had the young hokage's courage she would tear off her wedding kimono and leave Sasuke at the altar. But somehow she couldn't see the blonde being in her predicament in the first place. The thought of Sasuke and Naruto sitting for mi-ai made her lips tremble in a weak smile.

"It's what my family needs." She answered gamely after some thought.

Naruto snorted. "You sound like the bastard. You know I could still beat him up until he finds someone else to make babies with."

Hinata colored unhappily. She was torn between feeling used to the idea of only being fit to rear children and shamed that she was not able to make more for herself as a person and a kunoichi. Her family expected her to be as talented a shinobi as Neji and a political breeding machine. She failed on both counts.

Sasuke's resignation indicated he felt likewise obligated and that he likely thought of her the same way her family did - if even that personally. It was also not news to her that he was looking for a Hyuuga to overide his bloodline. That he might pick her only because she could erase his heritage, not even because he was interested in the byukagen, only made the whole situation worse.

Unlike many of the girls she knew, she had never toted the Prince Charming fantasy around; she knew that was impossible. She glanced at Naruto – she would have settled for a toad with a heart of gold. Still, she had also hoped not to marry a man who might despise her for her weakness as her family had or care only that she was able to bear children and no more.

"Thank you for your concern, Naruto-sama, but this is something I need to do."

Placing his cards on the table, Naruto sighed gustily. "That's pretty much what he said too. Well… he swore a lot more, but it's basically the same idea, right?" He laughed and rubbed the back of his head. When she returned his brilliant grin with a smile that never quite reached her eyes he sobered. He focused on her as if she were the only person in the world. "Just promise you'll let me know if he's bothering you, all right? Sasuke's not… he's not the easiest guy to live with."

Hinata smiled and tentatively placed her cool, pale hand over the massive back of his tanned, calloused one. "I will. Perhaps someday though, he won't be so hard to live with?"

Naruto snorted quite gallantly. "Cha, right. He wouldn't be Sasuke if he wasn't a dick, no offense."

"None taken Naruto-sama. It's your turn."

-

Sakura ducked out of the door and into the hallway again. She knew that Naruto knew she was there. He must have been tired from his new duties if he wasn't jumping on her the moment she walked near enough, she thought with a troubled frown.

As she returned back down the hall to deal with the budget reports for the new chuunin gear in his stead, she thought about Hinata and Sasuke. A small part of her had been jealous when she'd heard, but just a small part that had sprouted out of nostalgia and habit for the most part. She almost surprised herself when she realized that if given the opportunity to marry her friend and teammate, she would have passed. These days she liked a different kind of man.

But Hinata might be good for Sasuke, she thought to herself... which might be good for Naruto too, if Sakura thought about it. The door to the hokage's office was open. Inside someone had turned the lights off, the only sound was that of Shikamaru sleeping quietly in the chair by the door; the newspaper tented over his face rose and fell with his breath.

Sakura smiled tiredly. She would never admit it, but being one of Naruto's main advisors was wearing on her too. Bracing herself with her hand, she slid down to sit -just for a moment- on the carpet by the tactician's chair. The shallow in and out of his breathing was soothing. It was fall already in Konoha and the nights came early. From where she sat the rapidly coloring trees were wrapped in shadow as light fell away until tomorrow.

Without meaning to, her breathing began to match Shikamaru's -slow and steady. The folders in her lap looked less important by the second. Finally she closed them and as her last vestiges of consciousness drifted away, she thought that Naruto had been Sasuke's sun and his only celestial body for so long. Too long, maybe.

Massive, burning, and powerful, the sun and the never ending day or complete dark were all that Sasuke had ever had, that she could remember. Hinata was gentle, quiet, and she pushed in a different way than Naruto did. She believed and she asked that you did too. Maybe Sasuke and Naruto both needed a moon hanging in Sasuke's sky.

_The Sun and The Moon  
__-Sunpies-_

_Dedicated to Goosegurl_


End file.
